Former Collegiate Baseball Player Tells About Coaching A Winning Team
Coaching a Winning Team - Part of it is, it’s an education process for baseball. Baseball can be a very complicated game and a lot of people don’t make it in the game because of lack of education, the right thing to do, the wrong things to do, and there’s a lot of different options. It’s like doctors, there’s a100 different ways to hit, 100 different ways to pitch, 100 different ways to catch, etc, etc.
As you watch and listen to these, you’ll walk away with a tidbit or a nugget that will help you in your career, either as a player, as a coach, as a parent or as a young player that wants to aspire in the game, such as Tyler did. My background?
I am from Connecticut originally, came out and played baseball at Seattle University for about a year. I’ve coached a lot of teams at the younger level and I am part of a Select organization, we have six teams, we have over a hundred kids and about 100 families which started eight years ago with just one team.
I also represent CABA, Continental Amateur Baseball Association, I’m the Area Director for Bill Beckett and what we are trying to do is to provide a better educational website.
Also we’re trying to bring better quality national tournaments, that’s part of what our website says, but just to have a website with no content is really a waste of time. So, I’d like to start off first, our very first top baseball tournament with Tyler Rice. He was a collegiate pitcher for four years, he won two championships, got rings to prove ‘em.
He started with us when he was young, about 15 years old, and so he has been with us for seven years, he’s now coaching our organization so some of the questions that I’d like to ask him is: Tyler, question no. 1 when you were 13 or 14 did you ever think you would get to the level you did as far as your achievement; and second of all what were the three most important things that helped you where you wanted to go?
Tyler: 13, you’re not really focused on being a college baseball player. You want to be in the majors but you really don’t know how. At 13 I think you should focus more of your energy on being fundamental and learning the skills of baseball. People don’t remember your win/loss record at 13; they remember how many home runs you got, how many innings you pitched. 13 is definitely a fundamental year, the same with 14. The three things that really helped me is the coaches I had at 13.
Yeah my Dad was a coach but he was also a college baseball player and something that I would love to give every coach out there is if you are a parent and you have a son on your team it’s, you’re walking a fine line. You need to be very careful in not giving them more attention than the other players, not harping on them too much, not making it very obvious. That’s the one thing that I thought really helped me when I was a young player at 13.
My Dad didn’t do the wrong things as a parent/coach. He stayed hard on me but he didn’t baby me. I think I played on good ball clubs. We trained not the whole year, most players are now training all year long. It wasn’t as big back in the day.
The third thing I’d probably give you is I played all year long. I played on more than one team even at 13. That’s when I really started to hit it. Played Little League, played on the Big Field and then go play Select ball on a weekend, go to tournaments. But play, play, play, play, you can’t play enough at a younger age.
People shy away from pitch counts, games pitched and honestly a kid or whoever you are, your players need to play, play and play more. That’s how I learned the game. Being around it is how you learn it, that’s the one thing.
Coach: Another question. Back when you played there, you hear things of Select teams, the travelling teams and cost and there’s different levels. There’s Little League, there’s Pony League, Legion teams; what do you think is the big differentiator between your let’s say neighborhood teams or Little League as opposed to Select baseball, what kind of kid wants to play Select baseball, what attributes should he have to be successful at that level.
Tyler: The one thing you definitely see a big jump between Little League and Select baseball is the athleticism. Kids play a lot of sports. They play basketball, they play football, they play soccer and they play baseball.
They let their instincts take over and I think that’s the big difference between Select and Little League. Little League, everybody plays, everyone gets equal playing time, it’s not as serious. Now it’s good to get everybody out there learning the game, playing sports, being active.
But at Select level there’s a filter there, you got to do certain things right and being athletic is the number one. I think you find a little better athletes at a Select level because they want to play more. Now that’s not to say there’s not good talent in Little League, there’s more of a broader, what’s the word I’m looking for here ….?
Coach: Spectrum.
Tyler: Yeah, there’s a bigger spectrum of players at the Little League level. Select, there’s more time invested, there’s more money invested, there’s way more games. But like I said earlier, I played on Little League and Select at the same time and it allowed me to get probably 40, 50 more ball games in than anybody else.
Coach: So what do you say to a parent now that you’re a coach, your collegiate career is over, when they go ‘$2-3,000 to play baseball that seems like a lot, how is my kind going to get better’. What is the difference, what do you get at that level as opposed to a Little League team or a Pony team.
Tyler: Well you see at the Little League teams people go out and start training two, three weeks before the season whereas at Select level you’re training starting October 1st and you’re going all the way thru January, February until high school hits, depending on what age you’re at.
At the younger ages that’s when they start playing so at the Select level you pay all that money, you pay the two, three grand whatever it is, for your off season training, your fall ball, your instruction, that’s where you really learn the game is in the off season and you really need to get after it and your money is really put into the off season.
Then there’s the hotels, the flying, the travel costs but you’re paying for your kid to get better in the off season and that’s a huge difference between Little League and Select. It’s the time invested. Put a lot of time into this and time’s money.
Coach: So it sounds like you are saying somebody who plays Select baseball as opposed to your traditional Little League, Pony League or Legion, you think has a better chance to succeed at the collegiate level?
Tyler: Yeah, I would say that just because the kids playing Select they have more innings, they play more, they are in the game a lot longer. You know if you just play Little League that’s fine but if you are really serious about going to, being a college starter, a college player you need to play a lot.
It’s tough getting into a college team, in a good college program is tough and you got to put your time in and it starts at a really early age, especially now. There’s a lot of 13 year olds out there that can play this game and as long as they keep plugging away there’s no reason a lot of them can’t play college baseball.
Coach: Is training different for a Select program? I mean what do they do that’s different?
Tyler: It’s very aggressive. You know specifically the training I have seen over the last year or two, it’s full body, a ton of cardio and conditioning is huge.
Coach: How does a parent find if their son decides he wants to go play Select ball? Where do you find these teams? Is it a pro or by word of mouth or some guy’s an ex-major leaguer and thinks he can coach at this level? What should they look for when they’re actually investigating this?
Tyler: Something I’d recommend is go watch that club the year before. If you’re really serious about it, go watch how they practice, go watch how they play, just listen to how they interact with each other. If it’s something you like then I’d say go after it.
Coach: The next question. So, Tyler, what do you think? A parent goes, how do parents react when they’ve signed up, they’ve got the program, obviously they’ve met their coach and let’s say during the season their team starts out owing 5, owing 6, 1 in 7. I mean what’s a parent supposed to do if they are getting frustrated and they go up to the coach and go well my kid’s not playing enough whereas with the Little League there’s strict play rules or in other organizations. How does a coach handle that?
Tyler: I have learned being a young coach you need to be honest. You need to be dead honest with people. If your kid’s not playing, something that I was asked at a young age, my Dad would ask me what am I not doing, what do I need to do to play. I think parents really, really need to understand that your kid is playing.
Yeah you write the checks, you write the money but it’s their season, it’s their career and you need to let them take the reins of it. That’s something that is so important for parents to understand because I have seen numerous kid after kid, their parents take them out of the game and the kid doesn’t, the kid wants to play but the parents get in the way. Their hands are too much involved in the playing aspect.
Being patient, being very, very patient. If your team starts out slow so be it. A lot of teams start out slow, a lot of major league clubs start out slow and you can’t change this. They annually start out slow and you have to be patient especially at a young age.
Your kid’s not trying to offer a college team at 13, 14. You need to be patient, let them grow, let them mature and then, you know, if he grows and matures and he should be out there, that’s when you need to start asking questions.
Ask your kids what can you do. I think the wrong move a lot of parents make is sending an email or calling the coach right away. That’s one thing that I would say do not do is go to the coach first. Let your kid handle his business and if you can’t figure something out that way then step in.
Tyler: What can you do? I think the wrong move that a lot of parents make is sending an email or calling the coach right away. That’s one thing that I would say do not do is go to the coach first. Let your kid handle his business and if you can’t figure out something that way then step in.
Coach: So do kids, on your Select team did a lot of the kids go from, since they’re basically free agents, did they go to change to different teams year to year or did you see in your experience most only stayed with the club they began with? Like I said I know of one kid we had, he was on five different teams in five different years and had five different pitching coaches and hitting coaches and his career, he never fulfilled his potential.
Tyler: Yeah. I think it’s really important to keep a ball club together. I won two college championships and one of which were with guys that I grew up playing with from 15, 14 to 15, when I first started playing real serious level baseball.
That team started together for five years and then we found each other again in college. I think it’s really important for guys to stay together. You really learn how to play well together. It makes it very easy on the coaches when you have a group that’s been together for so long.
They understand how to play together; they don’t need signs any more. You give them your occasional sign down at 3rd base but as far as defensive stuff, bunting,base running, it all just goes together and you don’t have to say anything. Put them on a ladder card and let them play. So if you can find a club that you like, find players that you enjoy being around, find buddies that you play well with, stick with it.
The clubs that we are coaching right now, that’s something that I’m really, really going to push that staying together, keeping a good corps. You know you are going to see guys fall off there year to year but that happens. You are also going to add guys, add a good chunk. So I think it’s really important to keep a good corps, group of guys together.
Coach: So it seems like you got parents, your parents, your players. Now what about a coach? What elements or what fundamentals should a coach have, to be a good Select coach so I’m going to freeball here and bring Glen in.
Matt: Just keep going.
Coach: OK. I did not now coach in years, being more of an administrator. I get a lot of things that I thought I did right but in fact now I see what other coaches do, I did all the wrong things with the negative, you were negative and then you’d be positive and you’d try to do the negative and the positive and I had a good corps of kids but the results were different.
I thought I was prepared but I see what you guys do today in other organizations where you guys got your charts and your practice play and you’re there an hour and a half before game time and the game now has really changed. There’s more education and media out there, what to eat, the diet and the preparation and like you said…
Tyler: Is watch the game as much as you can. Watch what the pro guys do, listen to the pro guys. Somebody I really admire is Orel Hershiser. He knows this game inside and out and I really enjoy listening to him talk about the game when there’s always a Sunday night game on, something like that.
Listening to those guys has really helped me as a coach learning this game. I think, just as a player as well, being around it and not necessarily the playing or being involved, just watch it. You learn so much watching and being behind the scenes.
Coach: Well that’s really informative Tyler. Well at this time I’d like to introduce Coach Glen Solberg. He has coached at the CABA level, he has coached in national tournaments, for two or three years and we’re going to ask him some questions about what he does, what does he look for in a kid and how he prepares for his indoor or his off season and then also when it comes to a season.
Matt: So Glen how do you feel about being a Select coach? Tell us a little bit about your background. You coached at the Pony level and what’s the difference at that level to this level?
Glen: It’s a big difference when you come up from 12 year old baseball into Select baseball. First time out in the day I coached 13 year old baseball and I did it pretty much on my own. I wasn’t part of a program, just me and another guy – we liked coaching together.
We liked our group of kids so we brought a group that we coached as young players in the Pony program up into Select baseball. We had a pretty decent year, we probably played about 500 ball and then the next year we joined up with the WAVE program, I’m sorry I shouldn’t say that should I? We joined up with the Select program.
Glen: We joined up with the Select program and there’s a lot of benefits to getting in with a program as opposed to coming up with a group of kids like a neighborhood team and having the same coaches and not having any other influences. When I got into the program there were other coaches of various experiences.
Some of them had coached at the national level, some of them had coached at the collegiate level, some of them were successful collegiate players, others were not necessarily successful collegiate players but they were successful collegiate coaches. So when you get into a program like that you get the benefit of 6, 7, 8 or more coaches. And for me that was very exciting as a coach, because I could look around and I could learn from each one of them.
And each one of them had something to bring to the program. So when you, and we’ll talk a little more about looking for a Select team, a Select program, you’re really adopting their philosophy than you are just in the individual one team. You’re going to want to learn the style of baseball that they play and all of those coaches have a lot to do with the development of your players.
You get a lot of influences coming your way to help players other than just a single coach. If you come up with the neighborhood team with just the same two coaches and, for lack of a better word, you’re regurgitating the same things. So you want to get your kids more exposure at that age. You want to get your kids more exposure and it’s important to get into a good program to do that.
And so for me I learned a lot as a coach doing that. And being around those guys, being around guys like Tyler, other coaches I have been around a tremendous amount. One thing I have learned about good coaching is that good coaches are learning every day themselves just like a player should be.
They are always focused, they are always listening and learning, always taking in information from those around him and just like a good player should do, my personal opinion, is they take all this information and they have their own internal filter and they’re always looking for more and better information. So always trying to improve their craft and they consider what they do a craft.
Glen (continued): The second thing is great coaches, every great coach I have ever known, is a great communicator. Number one you have to communicate. If you are a Head Coach/Manager not only do you have to communicate with players of different ages, different developmental ages, you have also to communicate with parents.
There’s emotions there, there’s competitiveness there, coaches get competitive too. Whatever answer you get is going to be skewed by the timing of your conversation.
You know, it depends on the situation, it depends on what it is, if you want to talk about issues with playing time, for example, to me the best way to handle that is to first have your player at the Select level, have the player talk to the coach about what he can do or what he needs to do to able to get more playing time or play a certain position or what skill sets he’s lacking or could improve on and then if he is a good coach he’ll say “well this is how it is, this is what we need to work on.
Here are some things that you can do, I can show you some things you can do, and if you are willing to put in the time then we can reach the goals”.
You understand my situation? Sometimes the maturity is an issue there and that’s when the parent can get involved. Now the parents getting involved, they should come into it with the idea that most coaches again want to do the right thing. So give the coach a little credit for that and then approach him in a very peaceful manner and just say “hey this is kind of what the situation is”.
The fact of the matter is when you get to Select baseball at 13, 14 there’s a lot going on in players’ lives and there’s going to be a different level of commitment from different guys. So you kind of got to monitor that to see where you’re at.
Tyler: One thing I got about communication. On field communication as a coach is very important. Mid-game adjustments could be the difference between winning and losing. If you say the wrong thing your kids might go right down the drain.
Now you say the right thing they might turn things around and win you a ball game. Something I have learned thru the years, started coaching maybe four years ago, C Team baseball, nothing special, just to get my foot in the door …
Coach: C Team baseball, is that high school baseball?
Tyler: High school baseball, freshman, some sophomores. The one think I learned is you cannot go out and talk to a kid during a game and be so mad you can’t communicate your point. You have to be very calm. You have to have a calm but very stern message to them. It needs to be direct and to the point.
And me being more directed towards the pitching side of the game when I take mound visits I try to keep it as calm and cool and collected as possible. It’s very important to calm your guys down and just let them play.
They’re nervous as it is having you walk out there and talk to them, they don’t need somebody to jump down their throat and scare them away from the end result. What we are trying to do here is to calm your guys down and get them out, get a couple good strikes here and you get a win.
Glen: Can you explain to me and maybe I can explain to my sons to better understand. That’s one approach that would work really, really well. (video ends)
”Secret Bonus Report #1: What You Don’t Know About Developing Into A Stronger, Faster, Better Baseball Player – Former College Baseball Player Tells All”
Former Collegiate Baseball Player Tells About Coaching A Winning Team
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